Limited Government and Free Market Views in Delaware

the Delaware Health care exchanges

SO with only 12 days until the healthcare exchanges roll out nationwide and in Delaware, you are probably wondering what is going to happen in the Diamond State.

If you have signed up for the “Choose Health Delaware” e-mails, you probably have been getting many as the state gets more and more excited to bring us the “healthcare insurance exchange”. Of course, Delaware still hasn’t received approval for its pricing plans from the Federal government as of this writing (September 19), so if they don’t get it by October 1 then it is possible the state will begin rolling out coverage plans which have no price attached to them. Meaning, you will not be able to look through or choose any plan or compare any pricing because there won’t be any. Word is (from CRI’s secret sources) that today was the day Secretary Sebelius was supposed to announce the rates for the states with the federal exchanges, which clearly will not be ready by October 1.

A key component of the law is getting young people to enroll in the exchanges to offset the likihood of older people in the exchanges using more healthcare services. Here are some samples:

Clearly the $300 just “disappears” and becomes “free”. Maybe for her, but for the taxpayer, that means more money needs to come out of our pockets.

According to the Manhattan Institute, an associate of CRI, their map says if Alejandra lives in California, she will an extra $34 a month for an individual plan (most likely the silver plan). Which is an extra $408 a year-more than the $300 she paid with no insurance.

She doesn’t live there? Pricing is unfair? If she lives in Oregon, New York, Washington State, Washington DC, Virginia, Vermont, South Dakota, New Mexico, Connecticut, Or Maine, she will pay an increased rate. Even if she lives in New York, Ohio, Colorado, or Rhode Island where rates have decreased, she would still pay no less than $169 a month (Ohio) to get coverage. No Alejandra, who probably has little income, could attempt to enroll in Medicaid or qualify for lots of subsidies for health insurance-which then means her “free” checkup will be passed along to everyone else in the health exchange or the taxpayers.

Of course, the exchanges must be up and running by then to even give Malik and Alejandra a chance to succeed.